Lots of churn in India tablet market, but growth still in single digits: IDC & CMR

25th February 2015
Lots of churn in India tablet market, but growth still in single digits: IDC & CMR
The big tablet brands in India during 2014

Bangalore, February 25, 2015:  Only two  days separate the release of studies by IDC ( Fourth quarter 2014) and Cyber Media Research ( Fiscal 2014) on the Indian Tablet PC market. Rather than confuse readers by  throwing two sets of numbers at them without any attempt at reconciling them  ( as most of the media has done), we decided to make sense of the common trends highlighted by both respected tech analysts.  We believe these are more important,  than small differences in market share and sales numbers that are inevitable when different researchers try and assess the same market.  So here goes:

  • Just under 4 million tablets were sold in India during 2014,  about a milliion in each quarter.
  • The leading brands are Samsung, Datawind, Micromax, iBall, Lenovo and HP.  CMR Rates Samsung  with the biggest market share in 2014 -- 19.2 %. IDC's quarter 4 2014 study reports the swifgt emergence of IBall to the pole position with a share of 15.6% to Samsungs's 12.9. This is said to be driven by iBalls 3x growth within a  year. 
  • The overwhelming favourite as Operating system is Android, though Windows may be a challenger in 2015.  The  7 inch tablet is India's sweet size.  The days of WiFi -only tablets may be numbered -- Indians prefer   calling tablets  ie SIM-enabled machines which offer 3G and soon 4 G connectivity, says CMR. However IDC sees vendors exploring the 8-9 inch form factor  and consumers are not averse to online buying.

There seems to be a consensus that the tablet business, is not likely to grow  faster than single digit in 2015.   Last year's growth says a dip of 9%  compared to 2013, says CMR, while the last quarter numbers of IDC suggest a Q-on-Q growth of   an underwhelming 3.6% in 2014.
In short  Indians are buying tablets -- but not falling over themselves to do so. The weekend's union budget may make or mar this pass, depending on how the tax chips fall.  IndiaTechOnline